Photo: Lane H. Montgomery

Project Products & Articles

• Sarah Sewall. Do the Right Thing. Boston Review, September-October 2009.

Related Events,
Documents & Resources

• The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, submitted by the Department of Defense to Congress on February 1, 2010, addresses the need to militarily plan for, “[p]reventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad.” The QDR submitted by the Department of Defense in 2006 did not reference mass atrocities in its discussion of defense strategy and priority objectives.
  
  A draft of the QDR 2010 has been made available by the National Journal at: Defense-Review-2010.PDF, with references to "mass atrocities" appearing on pages vi and 15. See below for a relevant excerpt of the document's Executive Summary:

  “Prepare to defeat adversaries and succeed in a wide range of contingencies: If deterrence fails and adversaries challenge our interests with the threat or use of force, the United States must be prepared to respond in support of U.S. national interests. Not all contingencies will require the involvement of U.S. military forces, but the Defense Department must be prepared to provide the President with options across a wide range of contingencies, which include supporting a response to an attack or natural disaster at home, defeating aggression by adversary states, supporting and stabilizing fragile states facing serious internal threats, and preventing human suffering due to mass atrocities or large-scale natural disasters abroad.” - p. vi (emphasis added)

• Starting the Fall semester of 2009, the U.S. Army War College will include a seminar in their Core Curriculum on Failed States. This course will look at fragile states and the problem of ungoverned spaces, humanitarian intervention and genocide. From there, the class will evaluate the ways in which cases of internal violence, regional conflict and urgent humanitarian necessity impact upon U.S. interests, and to define courses of action for reacting to such contingencies. The Rwandan Genocide will be used as the case study for the seminar.

• PKSOI have a series of international engagement meetings to brief MARO in November 2009. They will participate in the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centres annual meeting, and attend meetings at the Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence as well as take part in the inaugural Civil-Military Interaction Seminar. The purpose of the Seminar is to enhance understanding of civil-military relationships and effectiveness in conflicts and disasters.

• Col. Clint Hinote: Campaigning to Protect: Using Military Force to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities. March 2008.

• Panel Discussion: “Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for U.S. Policy Makers” Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Boston Public Library, Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

MARO Project Brochure (printable PDF)

Project Outreach

• January 14th and 15th, 2010: MARO Table Top Exercise, U.S. European Command Headquarters; Stuttgart, Germany. The MARO Project ran a successful two-day mass atrocity response planning exercise at EUCOM. Participants included crisis action and deliberate planners, as well as planners and officials from other US agencies. A briefing for General Officers was also held. The MARO team will be taking the feedback it gained from working through MARO considerations with EUCOM to both improve upon the MARO handbook as well as sharpen further exercises. Future collaboration is planned both with EUCOM and other Combatant Commands.

• December 7, 2009: MARO Table Top Exercise Development Meeting; Cambridge, MA. The Carr Center hosted a meeting of MARO Team members, Core Planners and military exercise experts in order to further progress on developing a table top exercise that will be used demonstrate to military planners and others the complex decisions and trade-offs that MARO situations create.

• December 2-4, 2009: Medecins Sans Frontieres's Medical Assistance and the New Generation of Military Operations Roundtable; Toronto, Canada. The roundtable was convened to discuss how the new generation of military and government overseas interventions interact with MSF's actions. The three day event was attended by members of MSF, as well as US and Canadian military and government. Project Director Sally Chin led a roundtable discussion where she presented MARO in the context of civilian protection and the relationship between humanitarians and military during mass atrocity situations.

• November 25-27, 2009: NATO Defense College workshop, “Complex Operations: NATO at War and on the Margins of War;” Rome, Italy. MARO Project Faculty Advisor and Founder Sarah Sewall discussed the development of MARO Planning concepts to a roundtable of experts at the NATO Defense College (NDC). The purpose of the workshop was to develop ideas regarding complex operations and their implications for NATO. Papers stemming from this workshop will be published as part of a NDC Forum Paper in 2010.

• November 6, 2009: Pledge2Protect Conference; Washington, D.C. Project Director Sally Chin participated in panel discussions at the Pledge2Protect conference, organized by the Genocide Intervention Network, in partnership with Save Darfur and the Enough Project . The conference was designed to educate, empower, and highlight the work of activists who are driving the movement to prevent and stop genocide and mass atrocities. Over 800 advocates convened to learn organizational and advocacy skills and receive in-depth education on conflicts of concern.

• October 19, 2009: MARO Brown Bag Seminar; Harvard Kennedy School. MARO Project Founder, Faculty Director Sarah Sewall, along with Project Director Sally Chin, COL William Flavin (ret.), Chief of Doctrine, Concepts, Education and Training Division, Peace Keeping and Stability Operations Institute and COL Dwight Raymond (ret.), the PKSOI MARO Representative, discuss the unique issues involved in military planning for a mass atrocity response operation.

• September 21-24, 2009: The MARO Project participated and provided support to the Henry L. Stimson Center's workshop on military options to halt mass atrocities. Through a series of interactive wargame-like scenarios, the workshop identified key insights that could improve operational planning, training and execution of military operations mandated to protect civilians. Participants included a wide spectrum of former UN Peacekeeping Force Commanders, as well as military and civilian staff from the UN, ECOWAS, NATO, US, UK, and representatives of international organizations focused on peace keeping and civilian protection issues. During the workshop, Sarah Sewall outlined the changing role of civilians in conflict at the opening plenary, as well as presented the MARO concept during a session on international efforts to close the operational gap on halting mass atrocities.